Subtle vibration felt through the steering wheel - normal?

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Dan Lee

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I bought a used 2008 LX. Again, this is my first 4WD drive vehicle so not sure what to expect.

I'm feeling a low intensity, subtle vibration through the steering wheel. It's perceptible when I'm actually pushing down on the accelerator; I haven't fully characterized the behavior but I think it goes away if I'm just coasting / not apply any pressure on the gas pedal.

It seems to happen at all speeds. I think it's more apparent when going up hill but not sure. Not sure if turning makes it worse or not.

Car was inspected and no issues noted with the transmission (fluid due for replacement but not issues highlighted). Car seems to shift smoothly with plenty of power. So, I'm not really seeing any functional issues (yet).

Not sure if there is something wrong / wearing in the drivetrain (bearings, joints, differential, transfer case, ??) or if this is completely normal for a full time 4wd car.

Thoughts? Questions? Advise? Thanks!
 
I feel the same vibration with my 2009 and was told it was normal. It's very slight, my wife doesn't notice it. I would grease the driveshaft and only worry if it gets worse over time. That's my thoughts.
 
There's a lot going on in the drivetrain as you motor down the road. It's really busy down there, so there will are some things you may not be used to. But, if you are getting a vibration only under acceleration and at all speeds, I would take the suggestion from @mejerifly and grease all 4 U-joints and the 2 slip yokes on the front and rear driveshafts (2 u-joints and 1 slip yoke each). I'm guessing that will make the vibration go away.
 
Thanks. I have no idea what that is but I'll print it out and ask the shop to do it :)

ETA: found a picture of U joint and yoke. Got it. Pic is invaluable.
 
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Sucks. My vehicle didn't have the TSB applied, as far as I can tell. So either this isn't the same issue or, prior owner didn't notice it and/or Dealer didn't acknowledge it and/or symptom appeared late after terms of TSB.

If this is expensive to fix (assuming that there is a problem and not something normally expected), then I'm leaning toward following the above suggestion of monitor to see if it gets worse. I just don't know how to troubleshoot this. I guess lube the U joints / yokes first is a start.
 
Hmmm.......for sure start with the "east" driveshaft greasing (in fact, it might make a good first DIY job). That TSB looks expensive ($1000s), so I'd make that a last resort!
 
FWIW no steering wheel vibration in 13' with 92k I do grease my yokes and joints anytime I'm under there. :cool:
 
I had the same vibration when I first bought it 08 LX. Good tire balancing and the right tire pressure fixed it. In fact when I switched from Michelin Latitudes to KO2s last year the vibration came back. So I took it back to the dealership for rebalancing - they got it right the second time.
 
I had the same problem on 2010 GX. After rebalancing multiple times, charing tires and even Toyota engineer got involved, the dealer change me to 2011 GX which had the same problem. I sold that one back to dealer a year later as it was driving me nuts. It turned out later on when spoke with one of the mechanics that GX wheels were hard to balance and they were using the previous gen gx470 specs for balancing. When it was reconfigured issues went away. At places like discount tire regular balancing didn't work either. Big help was using location that have road force balancing machine.

In 2007 4runner i had vibration at specific RPMs (1800-2200 if remember). Never got that fixed but those were driveline related.
 
Car's vibrate. Some vibrations are normal. Others may signal an impending critical failure. My problem is: 1) trying to convey to the shop which felt vibration is causing concern, 2) trying to determine if this is normal, not normal / non-critical or not normal / critical.

First step will be to lube the U/yokes -- I'll get that done tomorrow. I wonder if I should go test drive some used / new LX's to see if the vibration is there. Hard to find LX's for sale though.....
 
Okay - lubricating the U/yokes didn't resolve the vibration. It's still there. And I think it's definitely related to pushing on the gas or not. And it may be (still need to test more) related to a certain gear and/or a certain engine speed (1500-2000 rpm? Not sure the vibration is there at higher RPM; that being said, except for hard acceleration, most of the time is spent at less than 2000rpm).

Maybe it is the TSB - sucks that the dealer didn't service it proactively. History shows the car has been serviced by dealers between in the TSB period. Dealers only fix TSB's if the owner raises it?

Anyway, back to monitoring mode - see if it worsens over time. Hopefully it's nothing. At least hopefully it doesn't result in a sudden catastrophic failure.
 
TSBs are simply bulletins that help service departments either 1) do things a certain way or 2) fix some specific things customers complain about. In the latter case, they are not proactive, mandatory, done without a complaint, or paid for by Toyota unless within the warranty period. Savvy customers often know more about the existence of a TSB than a typical dealer service writer.
 
I have the same thing, resonance around 1800rpm. Faint but noticeable. I'm not too terribly concerned about it. I have figured all along it's just the slight vibration from the LC not being a RWD vehicle and most of the parts being heavy-duty vice lighter duty and dampened for NVH. It seems to be noticeable on acceleration onto the highway from an on-ramp and at about 57 mph. Both of those are infrequent parameters for me at least.

I've been very careful about checking wear and tear on front items (tires suspension etc) - and have not noticed any. I have consistently had issues with the LC wanting to pull right on alignment. The dealer had max correction in with still a very very slight pull right. I wonder if the steering rack has some issue or bias towards the right? If there's a rack issue, that could correspond with what we are feeling, but that's hard to say. It'd be harder for the dealer to diagnose properly.

I've driven about 22,000 miles since I bought it (18k on the clock) in lots of conditions and in 99.99% of my driving all of the above issues have been unnoticeable. Warranty is good to 125k so I guess if an issue creeps up, I'll send it in.

Sorry that's not much help, but I do know what you're talking about.
 
I noticed while towing that I had a slight oscillating vibration coming through the steering wheel. Every few seconds it would rumble through the vehicle at 65-70mph. More of a secondary vibration than a primary one. It wasn't noticeable when not towing, so I thought it may be a tire issue (and still could be).

Until yesterday that is. I was checking the transmission fluid and started the vehicle and waited for the fluid warm up. While the idle was dropping, around 1200-1800 rpm I felt the same rumble, very slight, through the vehicle while sitting in the driveway.

So, it made me rethink the vibration. Perhaps a motor mount issue or slight engine imbalance at that rpm.
 
I have a similar issue. Any additional insight on this? My wife doesn't notice it, but its pretty noticeable to me.

Mine is exactly as OP described, only when no accelerator and more noticable up hills.
 
When I bought my 2010, it had a subtle but noticeable vibration felt in the steering wheel. Went away when the HVAC was turned off. It turned out to be a bad blower motor, a relatively common failure on these trucks.
 
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